1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compositions useful for decreasing and/or combating plumpness and/or excess weight for the purpose of obtaining a generalized or localized cosmetic and/or therapeutic slimming effect on the human or animal body. The present invention also relates to a method for slimming the body, by applying such a composition topically.
2. Discussion of the Background
Plumpness and/or excess weight is associated with the dysfunction of certain cells, known as adipocytes, which contain variable amounts of fats in the form of triglycerides which are themselves synthesized, in vivo by the adipocytes, enzymatically (lipogenesis) from free fatty acids and glucose contained in the body and supplied thereto via certain foods. In parallel with this, the triglycerides formed and then stored may be re-degraded, also via an enzymatic route (lipolysis), into fatty acids, glycerol and/or glycerol esters.
If, for various reasons, (poor hormonal functioning, excessively rich diet, inactivity, ageing), an appreciable imbalance develops in the body between lipogenesis and lipolysis in favor of lipogenesis, an accumulation of triglycerides occurs in the adipocytes, which may result in excess weight, possibly leading to obesity.
Although this excess weight was hitherto well tolerated, it nowadays constitutes, and especially in women, an ever-increasing problem both physical and aesthetic, or even psychological.
Several slimming methods have already been proposed for the purpose of combating excess weight, such as strict diets which as soon as they are stopped, very rapidly result in a new excess of weight which is often greater than that which was the cause of these diets, or alternatively surgical methods such as liposuction, these methods often being expensive and intricate.
The need thus exists for a "gentle" method, that is to say one which is not surgical or strict, for treating and/or preventing excess weight.
Many examples are known of cosmetic or dermatological compositions intended for treating the skin, which have one or more active agents that are suitable for treating the skin and which are encapsulated in lipid spherules or vesicles (also known as liposomes).
Lipid spherules or vesicles are understood to refer to particles formed of a membrane consisting of one or more concentric lamellae, these lamellae containing one or more bimolecular layers of amphiphilic lipids encapsulating an aqueous phase. The aqueous phase may contain water-soluble active substances and the bimolecular layers of amphiphilic lipids may contain lipophilic active substances.
These spherules generally have a mean diameter of between 10 nm and 5000 nm. Among the many documents published regarding this matter, there may be mentioned the French Certificate of Addition 2,408,387 which describes a composition based on aqueous dispersions of ionic or nonionic lipid spherules encapsulating at least one active substance. More precisely, this document describes compositions containing at least two dispersions of spherules containing different active agents, for the purpose of obtaining a mixed system, that is to say a system in which a first dispersion of spherules containing a first type of active substance is combined with a second dispersion of spherules containing another type of active substance, which enables the two types of substances to act simultaneously at the time of treatment and possibly to obtain a synergistic effect which would not be produced if these two types of substances were made to act successively and separately.
It is well known that the skin consists of surface layers, the stratum corneum, and of deep layers, the live epidermis and the dermis. However, specific delivery of such an active agent into the surface layers and, simultaneously, of the same or another active agent into the deep layers, is not known from the prior art.
Thus, there remains a need for a gentle method of combating plumpness. There also remains a need for compositions useful in such a method.